Monday, March 31, 2008

This will be my first spring from the last four where I will not be ordering chicks. The first year I ordered chicks, I became overwhelmed with chicken injuries and ended up given them to a neighboring farm. The next year that I ordered chicks, I lost most of them to Marek's disease and a mink massacre.

The following spring (2007) I estimated my mortality rate and ordered twice as many. So far I've lost only two. One of those was to a neighbor's dog. Time to get a paintball gun.

So we still have 22 chickens on our little farmstead. Our refridgerator is full of eggs, despite many egg salad sandwiches, angel food cakes, deviled eggs, egg noodles and creme caramel. I think I might start making my own mayonnaise.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Twelve inches of new snow. Not a problem, though. Snowblower started ok, electricity and phone still on, and plenty of food in the house. And no where we need to be anytime soon. And this is good, heavy snow, perfect for snowmen and snowballs. Yesterday I took a snow-day from work. Rendered lard, made chicken stock, and baked an angel food cake. A strange mix of smells coming from the kitchen, I assure you.